“No. 1: Catch-all bifolium” and “No. 4: Ink ruling (calfskin).” RBS Manuscript Quires Showing Basic Medieval Pricking and Ruling Techniques.

Michael Gullick.

“No. 1: Catch-all bifolium” and “No. 4: Ink ruling (calfskin).” RBS Manuscript Quires Showing Basic Medieval Pricking and Ruling Techniques.

Commissioned by RBS in 2002.

Medieval scribes employed pricking and ruling marks that served as guides for copying out texts in a neat and legible manner. This teaching set illustrates some common techniques. No. 1 is a “catch-all” bifolium whose fore-edges are each pricked with an awl in a vertical row to demarcate horizontal rulings made in blind with a sharp point—a technique characteristic of 11th- and 12th-century manuscripts. No. 4 is ruled in ink, a common 13th- and 14th-century technique.

From the collection of Rare Book School